But then I’ve seen a lot of places where they’ve changed their names. They’ve gone from, we’re, we’re no longer a zoo, we’re a wildlife center. And then all of a sudden their visitor numbers go down because the public don’t know what they are anymore. And then they go… Read More
You know, the, the, the National Zoo. The most important collection, most high profile collection in the uk. We were the big target. ’cause if we could, they could take us down. Everybody else was easy. But during that period, every time they raised their head above the parapet, I… Read More
And it was like, oh yeah. And we did a very long, it was, I think it was a good two or three hours debate on Radio four, major UK radio State National Radio station. And I’m proud to say that I think that won the argument. But what was… Read More
I said, and you’ve got knowledgeable people. You have, you, you, you do the interviews, you do the debates, you use examples you make, you’re not just arguing with them. You’re informing everybody on the outside who only sees their argument, only hears their argument because you’re not saying anything. Read More
Anyway, the BBC producer that was there came up to me, said, would you be interested in doing a debate with them live on BBC?… Read More
And I used about three examples like this. And you know, I said basically, you know, don’t paint us all with the same brush. Read More
Did you find out if that was one of those animals?… Read More
And, you know, ’cause there was lots of, of Belgians that lived in what was then Zaire. And under the new regime they came back, they came back with pets. And when the manga be trashed, the living room, they ended up at the zoo. Read More
I said, did you bother to ask what was the history of that animal?… Read More
They could have ignored me. They didn’t. And so I stood up and I immediately said, right, I’m Douglas Richardson, I’m curator of mammals at London Zoo and all the cameras just immediately sit drowned. And, and I just caught them off guard. And I said, look, there was, there’s,… Read More
I mean, if you’re, if you’re talking about groups that are and are in particular anti zoo, would that be correct?… Read More
Correct. Okay. Dealing with them is, for me is almost as much fun as having sex. Many years ago when I was working at London, there was a very important or very high profile anti zoo group who were launching a video and there was clips of London Zoo on… Read More
Can you talk a little, can you talk about animal welfare groups in Europe and their relationship with zoos?… Read More
Can you give us your thoughts on that?… Read More
I don’t think we do. So the emphasis I think has to be on threatened species and you can still have a representative collection, but everything will have a, a conservation emphasis. Read More
Do we need another African plains exhibit with common African stock on it?… Read More
They, I mean, do we need another meercat exhibit?… Read More
I don’t think any collection, no matter how big, medium or small it may be, I don’t think they really can afford not to have a collection whose major emphasis is on highly threatened species. Be they as part of insurance populations, be it as part breeding for reintroduction or… Read More
What kind of collection should those small and medium zoos try and achieve In this day and age with the state of the planet?… Read More
Well you talked about finances and, and considering financial resources available to the small or the medium sized zoos, what do you think should be the focus of those kinds of collections?… Read More